TikTok’s Santa Voice Effect Does More Than “Ho! Ho! Ho!”

There are so many renditions of Santa in countless Christmas movies, but one of the most iconic ones has to be Tim Allen in The Santa Clause. There’s something about when he lowers his voice to sound like the man of the season that really makes you believe in the transformation. Well, get ready to say “ho! ho! ho!” and so much more à la Allen with TikTok’s new Santa voice effect, which you can use a couple of ways. It channels Santa’s voice to narrate your Christmas videos, so you can feel like you’re in a Disney movie IRL. You can also crack a Santa joke or two that’ll maybe get you on the nice list (can’t hurt!). Here’s how to use TikTok’s new Santa voice effect and get in the holiday spirit.

If you’ve been scrolling through the feed lately, you’ve probably seen a lot of festive content, and if you’ve been channeling more Scrooge than Buddy The Elf energy, this is your sign to make a Christmas TikTok video in Santa’s voice. TikTok announced the effect on Dec. 16 with a video on TikTok Newsroom alongside an animation demonstrating the Santa text-to-speech voice effect reading aloud “‘Twas the month of December, lots of trends to remember. Liking and sharing, and story time cheer. Thank you for the most unforgettable year.”

TBH, the audio voice isn’t as Santa-esque and jolly as you might hope, so you might want to add little extra jovial touch to your voice before you pop on the Santa effect, if you’re using the audio effect. The text-to-speech effect only has one voice, a deep, older man’s voice (read: Santa), so you can always stick with that one for a more ~pure~ sound. Your video will definitely be joining in on the trend, as the #Santa has over 8.8 billion video views on TikTok and Father Christmas is making its TikTok debut on the effects.

How To Use TikTok’s Text-to-Speech Santa Voice Effect

• Open TikTok and record or upload your video.
• Click “Text” on the right-hand editing menu.
• Add the text you want Santa to read.
• Tap on your text, then select "text-to-speech.”
• Choose “Santa” under the “Christmas” text-to-speech options.
• Check the “Apply voice to all text in this video” if you’d like Santa to voiceover the full video.

If you’re feeling creative, the other Christmas text-to-speech options include Author or Caroler. Now, if only TikTok made a Mariah Carey or Michael Bublé voice effect, that would be a Christmas wish come true.

How To Use TikTok’s Audio Editing Santa Effect

The other way to get Santa’s voice in your TikTok video is by using TikTok’s Audio Editing tool. Here’s how it works.

• Open TikTok and record a video with you speaking in it, or record a voiceover later.
• Click “Audio editing” on the right-hand editing menu. It’ll open up a range of different voice effects including Robot, Giant, Cat, and more.
• Hit the “Santa” voice effect and it’ll apply Santa’s voice to your audio.
• If you’re recording a voiceover, hit the red “Record” button, then check the box that reads “Replace original sound with recording.”

At the moment, you can’t apply the voice effect on videos that weren’t recorded in the TikTok app, so tap on that record button and give Father Christmas a run for his money.